Each runway at an airport positions an aircraft for take-off and departing flight in a fixed direction. Runways are typically surrounded by an area of clearance so that an aircraft can begin its ascent without encountering such obstacles as buildings, trees, power lines or their support structures, and so on. Preferably, the clear airspace extends well away from the departure end of the runway, permitting ease of flight.
Airports can sometimes be positioned in areas where extensive clearance is not possible for a variety of reasons. For example, natural features, such as trees or hills can be present. Similarly, artificial obstacles, including housing, buildings, fences, utility structures, can be present due to proximity to a nearby population center serviced by the airport. Accordingly, various obstacles can be present near the runway, and such obstacles must be avoided by departing aircraft.
A survey of the obstacles present near the departure end of a runway, called a departure procedure, is often provided to aircraft operators to apprise them of the obstacles. Such information is typically a dense, repetitive list, which is intrinsically difficult for an operator to commit to memory. Additionally, a pilot may depart from a large number of different runways. Thus, the use of multiple runways can further augment the difficulty of using  operator memory to recall mentally cumbersome strings of information for distinctly different runways. While sometimes a departure procedure is provided to an aircraft operator in written form, the obstacle information remains as a dense list of strings of information. Thus, even under normal circumstances, it can be time consuming for an operator to refer to and interpret the departure procedure during aircraft operation.